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“Are you sure this is where you want to shop?” Amity glanced at her girlfriend from the corner of her eye as they stood out in the parking lot, baking under the late July sun while they waited for Gus and Willow to catch up.
“Yeah! This is where I always used to come and play as a kid. I got to know the owners pretty well and my mom started shopping here sometime after that.” Luz waved a hand. “Besides, this place always has great deals, way cheaper than the big outlet places downtown and I bet Eda would cut us some kind of special deal,” she said with a grin and Amity made a humming noise as she looked up at the building.
The building was large, two stories easily, but the thing was gray and it’s large red sign, welcoming all to ‘Clawthorne’s Curios’ was well worn and faded from the sun. One of the letters even hung dangerously on its last legs, all but ready to fall to the cement below and crush some unsuspecting customer to death under a giant ‘A’. The entire store looked like it had seen better days but the way Luz was just vibrating with energy was enough to convince Amity to, at least, go in and have a look around.
They could use all the ‘deal cutting’ help they could get. The four of them moving into a place just off campus would really help rent wise and the place was nice enough but they had to furnish it themselves. Between that and getting all their school stuff together the last week and a half, this was one of the last things they needed to do and then they could rest for the rest of the summer.
They had few things from home, TV’s and dressers but both she and Luz had single beds and as much as Luz tossed and kicked in her sleep - as Amity had discovered in the last year - two singles pushed together just weren’t going to cut it.
They would have just moved both their beds from home into their new room but that plan was quickly nixed when her parents adamantly refused to let her take it. They didn’t want her moving out to start with and Luz’s mom needed her bed as she had needed to rent Luz’s old room out to a boarder for extra income.
So now they had to buy one. Luz had taken the whole thing in stride, as she usually did, and Amity wasn’t sure what she would do without her goofball girlfriend sometimes.
“Hey, are we going in or are you two trying to cook your brains?” Gus asked as she walked straight passed them toward the front door, intent on getting out of the glaring sun as quick as possible.
“We were waiting for you!” Luz chased after him through the sliding glass doors.
“This is going to be an afternoon…,” Willow mumbled as she paused at Amity’s side. She couldn’t help but agree with a low grunt. Luz - and Gus - had a tendency to let themselves get carried away in department stores. It was inexplicable, the way the two came alive, bouncing wall to wall like it was an amusement park rather than a place that sold lamps.
“We best hurry, before they break something,” Amity grunted. She paused and sighed, “Again.” Willow snorted but nodded in agreement as they stepped through the sliding glass doors and into the air conditioned building. The cool air immediately began drying the sweat that she hadn’t even realized till now had been dripping down the back of her neck.
It didn’t take them but a second to find Luz and Gus, standing up near a platform where an older woman with a mane of gray hair was grinning down at them as Luz talked animatedly to her.
A pair of amber eyes flickered over to them as they approached and if anything her grin only widened.
“So, which one of these two is the lucky girl, Luz?” she asked, eyeing the other two women as they approached and Luz lit up, throwing an arm around Amity’s shoulders the second she stopped at her side.
“This is my girlfriend, Amity Blight,” she introduced her to the woman leaning over the cracked and stained marble counter to look at them. “Amity, this is Eda Clawthorne, she owns the store.” Luz grinned at her, finishing the introduction.
The woman’s grin only seemed to widen.
“A Blight, huh? Really aiming up eh, Kid?” She barked a laugh and Amity immediately felt her hackles rise at the comment. It was hardly the first time someone had insinuated that Luz was below her and it probably wouldn't be the last but, just as every time before, Amity wasn’t going to hear it.
“Luz is not below me,” she snapped with a snarl, making everyone look at her, shocked at the sudden outburst but it didn’t last long. Eda was the first to break the sudden tension with a barking laugh.
“I like this one, Luz.” she grinned and Amity happened to catch a sideways glance at Luz, who was looking at her with that very telling look in her eyes that made Amity’s cheek grow warm. Luz’s arm around her gave a light squeeze.
“So, what can I do for ya?” Eda asked slapping a hand on the counter and standing up straight as she looked down at them. “Can I Interest you in this fine cabinet?” She held her hand up to a heavy looking, standing oak cabinet. “The previous owner of this one was very careful, very clean... their security was a joke but they kept good care of their stuff otherwise." Eda grinned at the four young adults. Everyone but Luz looked around at each other uncertainly.
“Maybe another time...,” Luz snorted. "Amity and I are looking for a bed to go in our new place near campus…”
“And I need a desk,” Willow chimed in after her.
“And I’m just here to browse,” Gus tacked on.
“Welp, beds and all the like are over there.” She pointed to the far side of the store “...and desks are over there.” she pointed in the opposite direction. “If ya see something that you just can’t live without, let me know.” She grinned, a gold canine flashing in the overhead lights.
Luz didn’t need to be told twice and took off through the store, leaving Amity to hurry along after her as she disappeared between the cabinets and headboards..
The entire store looked old and worn, stained tile underfoot and places where it looked like things had once been. It looked like it used to be a grocery store maybe and things filled nearly every square inch of available space with one piece of furniture or another, all crammed together in a mish mash of pieces that didn’t match in the least. Some appeared to be antique and others like they had just rolled out of the factory that morning. Varnished wood and sleek metal all towering around her everywhere she looked.
The place had a certain smell to it as well. Not bad but a distinct odor that she couldn’t quite place. Like, dusty carpet or something of the like.
“Luz?” she called out, turning a corner and jerking to a halt when someone popped up but sighed when she realized it was just her reflection in a vanity mirror.
Where had Luz run off to so quickly?
She stepped up to the vanity and pushed a few strands of newly dyed auburn hair behind her ear. She didn’t have to bleach it anymore to match her mother or siblings once she told them she was moving out for school. She could have waited for it to grow back out to it’s natural reddish-brown tint but that would take some time.
She had decided it was easier to match it and then she would never have to deal with the roots problem again. Eventually, it would just be hers. She was looking at her hair when she caught a glimpse of movement from the corner of her eye and could see Luz; chin in her hand and grinning at her in the mirror.
“There you are!” Amity whipped around to look up at her girlfriend laying on her stomach on the top bunk of a bunk bed.
“Hola hermosa, come here often?” Luz grinned and wagged her eyebrows at her. Amity huffed and rolled her eyes.
“What are you doing up there?” Amity asked, planting a hand on her hip as she looked up at Luz.
“Trying out the beds,” she blinked, like it should have been the most obvious thing in the world.
“We are not getting a bunk bed,” Amity said, matter of factly.
“Why not? I always wanted one as a kid but since it was just me, mami always said no,” Luz rolled over onto her back with a huff, looking at Amity upside down.
“First of all, this looks very uncomfortable,” she said, looking down at the, maybe, three inch thick mattress Luz was laying on, thoroughly unimpressed. “Second, we’d have separate beds and I am not going to climb up on this every night…”
“Soooo?”
“So, no cuddling if we got a bunk bed,” she said and Luz frowned, rolling back over onto her stomach.
“No bunk bed,” she quickly agreed and Amity smirked. She had had a feeling that might quickly sway Luz.
“Let's look for a real bed now,” Amity said as Luz flung herself down the ladder to the floor.
“A full is probably big enough right?” Luz hummed as she looked around at everything on display.
“I’d think so…” Amity nodded as she wandered over to look at a bed.
“I’ma try this one!” A loud ‘poomf’ followed the declaration and made her turn back around to find her girlfriend lying face down on one of the beds. Amity sighed to herself. She had had a pretty good idea that this was exactly how furniture shopping with Luz was going to go.
“It’s soft…” Luz’s muffled voice floated over to her. “Come try this one, cariño!” Luz’s head popped up out of the indent her face had made in the bedding.
Amity made a face. She preferred a firmer mattress and she didn’t think the one Luz was currently belly flopped onto was going to do it for her but she would try it anyway.
She swore the thing sunk six inches the second she laid on it, practically swallowing her.
“Well?” Luz asked, propping her chin in her hand as she looked down at her girlfriend who was making the most ridiculous and strained face Luz had ever seen. The same one she’d worn when her Edric had shown up at a houseparty they had been at in a grass skirt and coconut bra.
Uncomfortable and annoyed.
“I hate it…” Amity frowned, looking up at her.
“Why?” Luz laughed.
“First of all,” she grunted, trying to roll out of the divot she’s made. “I can’t get out of it!”
Luz snorted and flung herself off the bed and grabbed one of Amity’s flailing hands and hauled her out of the mattress currently eating her.
“Besides that though?” she asked, grinning.
“Beside that, it's too soft, and that’s not good for your back,” she said.
“But soft is the point! You’re supposed to sink into it. Back problems are a problem for future Luz.”
“Well, present Amity doesn’t want to make problems for future Amity.” The other woman planted a fist on her hip as she looked up at Luz who huffed.
“Fine,” she pouted. Amity just rolled her eyes as she moved down the rows of eclectic and sometimes bizarre furniture. Like the end table with a base carved to look like a large, yellow rubber ducky. She walked past it and just hoped Luz didn’t see it. It was exactly the kind of thing she’d want to put in their bedroom.
There were a lot of odd and just downright bizarre pieces scattered about, seemingly trying to blend in between the more average headboards and coffee tables. Blink and you missed them.
Most of them.
“Check out this chair!”
She turned around to find Luz sitting on a chair. At least that’s what she guessed it was supposed to be. Dark, solid wood was carved into a scorpion, its curving tail making up the backrest and its smoothly carved stinger looming over Luz’s head.
“I kinda love this chair…” She grinned, slapping her hands against the pincer shaped armrests. Amity snorted.
“There's no way Gus and Willow are going to want that in the living room.” Amity smirked, crossing her arms over her chest.
“What if they don’t mind?” was the challenging reply that made Amity roll her eyes but she just shrugged.
“If they don’t care, I don’t care.”
“Yes!” Luz pumped a fist and flipped over the little tag attached to the arm.
Amity blinked as she watched Luz’s face go slack, jaw hanging open.
“Nope!” She jumped up like the thing had scalded her.
“A little outside your price range?” Amity cocked a brow as Luz hurried past her, deeper into the store.
“I’d have to sell a kidney!” she called over her shoulder, making Amity snort.
They moved around the maze of a store, ducking between sets of armour and dining room table pieces; trying out any of the beds they found buried among the rest of Eda’s wares. They had yet to be able to agree on one. Tempers started to flare a little as the search continued and they couldn't come to an agreement.
“It’s like a rock,” Luz grunted, eyeing the mattress in front of them,
“It is not!” Amity huffed.
“What was wrong with the last one?” Luz threw up a hand, brows furrowed between her eyes.
“How’s the hunt coming?”
They turned to find Willow glancing between them curiously. Amity sighed and Luz frowned.
“We’re not having much luck finding something we can both agree on,” Amity mumbled, pushing a lock of hair back behind one of her ears.
“Well, if it comes down to it, you could just have separate beds in the same roo-”
“No” Was the stereo reply before she could even finish her question, making Willow roll her eyes at them.
“Then figure something out. I still haven't found a desk I like just yet but I don’t think it's going to take me as long as you two.”
“Come check out this bed, Luz!” Gus called over with a wave and Luz wove through the furniture, disappearing behind a cabinet.
“Not as easy as you thought?” Willow asked, turning back to Amity, who sighed.
“A bit. We have differing preferences…”
“I wouldn’t say they’re that different…” Willow trailed off, grinning and Amity glared at her, face turning pink, which only made her friend laugh.
“What about those ones that have separate adjustments on both sides?” she asked as they followed Luz and Gus’s voices through the store.
“They’re expensive and we're on a budget. We haven’t even bought all the textbooks we need for this semester yet.”
“The life of a broke college student, just as the legends foretold,” Willow smiled ruefully and Amity snorted.
“Especially when you’ve been all but cut off…” Amity mumbled and Willow laid a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.
“You stood up to them though and proved you weren’t going to bend to their every whim.”
“I’m not going to let them use money to dictate who I should be with,” she snarled though Willow knew the anger wasn’t aimed at her.
“Amity, check this out!”
They turned the corner just in time for a pillow shaped like a throwing star to smack Amity in the face.
“You’re in trouble.” She heard Gus mumble and opened her eyes to see Luz sitting on her knees on another bed, blinking wide-eyed at her.
“I love you?” She tried nervously but the next thing she knew Amity had crossed the short distance between them, pillow in hand and cuffing the other woman upside the head with the pillow.
“I’m sorry!” Luz laughed as Amity whacked her with it, neither noticing their friends quickly slinking off.
Luz managed to wiggle away and grab the other pillow to defend herself with. The next five minutes were spent beating each other senseless with decorative pillows, their laughter echoing through the store.
Finally out of breath, they both fell back on the bed, still laughing to each other.
“I’m sorry I was getting snippy with you earlier,” Amity turned her head to look at her.
“It’s okay, I’m not being the most compromising…,” she admitted with a yawn.
“You’re tired… we both are… between moving and getting all our school stuff together, everything has been… a lot,” she sighed, turning over onto her side and laying her head on Luz’s shoulder.
“Yeah,” Luz agreed tiredly, closing her eyes. “I need a nap,” she grumbled. Amity couldn’t agree to that more, especially now. She would close her eyes, just for a second, then they really needed to get back to looking for a bed.
The next thing either of them knew, they were being shaken awake by Gus and Willow.
“Huh, whuzat?” Luz blinked blearily.
“How long are two going to sleep, did you find a bed or not?” she asked.
“Oh… no,” Amity grumbled, sitting up and rubbing her eye with a fist as Luz hauled herself up to sitting and wiped at the dried drool on her chin.
“Well, what about this one?” Gus motioned to the bed they had been napping on for the last fifteen minutes.
Amity and Luz blinked, before turning to look at each other.
“It’s not bad,” Amity admitted and Luz nodded.
“It’s a lot softer than some of the other ones,” Luz hummed, patting it. She leaned over and looked the price tag. “It’s in our budget…”
“So?” Amity asked and Luz grinned.
“Hey Eda!” Luz cupped her hands around her mouth and hollered across the store, making the others flinch.
“What?” A voice yelled back from somewhere in the store.
“We’ll take this one!”